1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to labels for use with specimen collection containers and, more particularly, to labels having an excitation-activatable material disposed thereon.
2. Description of Related Art
It is common for medical specimens to be collected by a technician in a collection container for subsequent testing. Blood specimens are typically collected in blood collection tubes. These tubes are typically transported to an analytical testing facility with documentation relating to the intended testing procedure to be performed on the specimen, as well as patient identifier information. Information, such as the type of specimen collection container, the intended testing procedure, and/or patient identifier information, can be reduced to a scannable bar code which can be placed on the blood collection tube. The bar code is typically printed on a label and applied to the tube by use of an adhesive, where it can be conveniently scanned by a bar code scanner to provide the requisite information to the medical technician. In many instances, automated testing equipment is used for clinical testing of multiple sampling containers in an assembly line configuration. Such automated equipment typically involves some form of bar code scanning in order to associate the proper information with the correct sample. Bar code scanning may be performed with a hand-held scanner or with a fixed bar code reader.
Small volume blood collection containers have a limited surface area on which a barcode may be disposed. This is often insufficient to allow for all of the required information to be provided on a specimen collection container. One aspect of particular concern is that of “overlabeling”, when multiple barcodes and/or relevant indicia identifiers are provided on a single specimen collection container. In certain situations, both computer-readable barcode information and human-readable information pertaining to testing procedures are both required to be provided on a label, thereby increasing the overall size of the required label. Overlabeling and the use of large labels may lead to obscuring visual access to the contents of a specimen collection container. This can cause clinical errors during specimen draw as well as diagnostic errors during subsequent analysis and/or specimen testing.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved label that provides both the requisite computer-readable barcode information and the human-readable testing information in a compact format without obscuring the contents of the specimen collection container.